Spike Brothers! Go! Fight! Win!

So, my friends and I got into Cardfight!! Vanguard around the time the anime first started up. At first I kept telling myself 'NO! I must not start another card game! The overdraft won't be able to handle it!' and decided against getting one of the first trial decks.

But Lee (lankyspirit), being the insidious card troll he is, let me use his TDs to try the game out. It proved fatal and I was hooked.

The trouble I had was, none of the initial clans really appealed to me that much. I couldn't find anything that made me go 'Yes! I want to use that!'
I really like Blue Dust and I want to make a Dark Irregular deck when the third booster comes out, but I needed something now!

That's when I saw Cheer Girl Marilyn as one of the cards of the day and became shamelessly infatuated. I first thought Spike Brothers was a bit silly and didn't fancy bothering. But Marilyn made me look a little closer and that silliness grew on me.

So, there's the story of how I got into CFV. Let's take a look at my stuff! :3

Grade 0:
The trigger units are the obvious (only) choices. The initial temptation was to mix Spike Brothers with Nova Grapplers and use Red Lightning to have 12 Critical Triggers. I might experiment with that in the future for the lols. :3 Silence Joker is the only damage un-flipping the deck has right now, but it seems to work okay as most of the counterblasts I use are cheap.

Mecha Trainer is a fantastic starting unit. If I can, I go first and allow my opponent to get the initial attack in. I can then immediately use Mecha's effect to grab Dudley Dan and keep him in my hand until I need him.

Red Shoe Milly is a strong guardian unit that gives a cheeky +1 to soul, which is always handy.

Grade 1:
Marilyn *p*... Even if she was rubbish I would still use her. But as it stands she's a good booster with the same 'sure block' ability as the likes of Isolde and Gust Jinn, which has seen me through a few sticky situations.

Dudley Dan is the bread and butter of the deck. There has only been one occasion where I haven't picked him with Mecha Trainer (where I drew Unite Attacker in my opening hand and was desperate to use his ability). His ability to call any Spike Brothers unit from the deck regardless of grade and add to your soul is ridiculously awesome. He is the perfect compliment to Juggernaut Maximum; Juggy hops back into the deck after using his soulblast and Dan can pull him straight back out again, as well as replacing the soul you used to soulblast initially...So you can do it again!

So far Spike Brothers Strike Force hasn't been very useful to me. I've never really had the chance to use its effect but I can imagine when this deck is sleeker it will become invaluable as it can boost every attack as new Bros pop out again and again.

I completely overlooked the fact that Wonder Boy was an 8000 booster at first and didn't want to use him. I rectified that mistake quickly.
What is the secret of his power?

I'm not the biggest fan of Cyclone Blitz, it's just in there as filler at the moment. He could be handy if you're stuck for grade 2 or 3s and have the soul to use, but I would rather save that for Juggernaut Maximum.

Devil Summoner is a little unpredictable, but can really pay off when you're in a tight spot. The best thing about him is that he doesn't have to call to an empty rear guard circle, which is great if you're running out of space (the big weakness of this clan is that it likes to clog your field up if you're unlucky). In one game I called him as my Vanguard and he called another Devil Summoner, which then called another Devil Summoner. It was hilarious.

High Speed Blackie is like the poor man's Juggernaut Maximum. Though his ability is handy to break through high powered units early on, I'd rather just shove in 4 Juggies. Once you hit grade 3, you're going to much rather run into him after he's hopped back into deck than this little feline brother of his.

Grade 3:
Juggernaut Maximum is another one of those units that you are bound to see at least once (or twice, or even three times) in every game. My common moves are Mecha Trainer > Dudley Dan > Juggernaut Maximum. As long as I can get to Grade 3 quickly, he can bring the pain. In any other deck his ability to jump back into the deck after clobbering something would be seen as a drawback, but with the Bros it's a huge boon: It frees up space for other units to fill and carry on the assault; it saves him from being untimely retired; he can be pulled out again with Dan like I mentioned before and, if you're lucky, it can combo very nicely with General Seyfried.

He looks a little out of place, the General. But I assume he's like the manager of this crazy football team. This fits pretty well with his being the perfect choice of Grade 3 vanguard. His little pumping ability means it's not completely wrong to call him as a rear guard, but he really shines in front and centre with his ability to call any Grade 3 Bro he checks into; something much more likely to happen as Juggernaut Maximum keeps running in, smashing your opponent in the face (maybe with his own face) and running off again.

When I first saw Unite Attacker, my eyes went wide. Effectively he allows you to call the top five cards of your deck which can lead to two more boosted attacks that turn. Basically Mr.Invincible with a higher degree of risk/return. The problem is that even though he can soul charge, he lacks Mr. Invincible's ability to un-flip damage which means that unless you have a lot of other sources of un-flipping, you pretty much have to avoid counterblasting at all. For the chance to have two more attacks that could potentially go horribly wrong (five grade 0s? Ouch...), I don't really think it's worth it.

I love Spike Brothers. They're crazy, reckless and unpredictable. All you can assume where these guys are concerned is that you're going to get a beating. They can suffer from a lack of power at the earlier grades but more than make up for it with their potential to spam like the world is ending.

When I can I want to throw in a few Skydivers, as they are a perfect compliment to both the strategy and the spirit of the clan. Plus his art is awesome!

I don't even like football that much, but I love these guys.

A few friends and I are hoping to gather as many UK cardfighters as possible and hold a tournament soon. If it happens and you come along then I look forward to playing you!

Feel free to throw in your thoughts and ideas, or just talk to me about the game in general! X3
I hope you enjoyed reading this post as much as I did writing it. <3

Really nice review on your <Spike Brothers> deck. I am always glad to be reading other players insight on certain aspect of Bushiroad card games. I have seen this deck go into action and I never doubt the sheer amazement of how single-clan decks always face the greatest synergy besides working with a dual-tri clan deck. I do hope to see even more action when 3rd and 4th booster does get release. However I have yet to touch upon Vanguard as a player. But I do hope to play this series soon. Awesome post.

Thanks! I'll probably do another review of it when I upgrade the deck and then do the same thing after booster box 3 when I make my Dark Irregulars deck. ^^
I know what you mean, single-clan decks seem to have more of an advantage at the moment due to how well they flow with each-other. The more clans you put in, the more powerful it becomes at a cost of smoothness. I really like that though as there's enough variation in the clans to make single clan decks different and it makes a game-breaking cookie-cutter deck less likely to appear. :3

Evidence in the card art suggests that they play American football, rather than rugby. They wear body armour and helmets and I don't remember rugby teams having cheerleaders. If they did, I'd probably watch a lot more rugby. ;P

As for sky diver, I did mention later in the post that I want to put some in. It would be magical.

I think the thing with Spike Brothers is they're a bit of an oddball clan. Every other clan seem to have quite broad themes that appeal to lots of different people, whereas Spike Brothers is kinda limited and very random. Which in my opinion makes them awesome! xD

She is quite useful as she can block any attacks without exhausting your hand. With cards like Blond Eizel's Limit Break, a null guard is extremely useful and convenient. 2 will be a good amount of null guards in your deck.

I want to make a Spike Brothers deck and this really helped me a lot! Thanks for the good info. With the new Extra Booster having Demonic Lord Dudley Emperor, Spike Brothers is going to be one of the most powerful clans out there!